The Sacrifice of Isaac

Artist Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

Dateca. 1612-1613

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 55 1/2 x 43 1/2 inches (140.97 x 110.49 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number66-3

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionCenter, in crimson robe, standing, sandaled figure of bearded man bearing dagger pointed right in proper right hand, arm bent at elbow, left hand extended toward head, right, of kneeling youth wearing white drape around loins and left arm at elbow, head averted toward right, back leaning against stone platform, right, bearing brush and logs and surmounted by blazing brazier; upper left, figure of barefooted angel, clad in blue-gray robe, hovering above man's head, restraining his arm at his right wrist with right hand, ram in thicket, lower left center, trees in background, lower left, rocky wall with plants behind figures, right.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Gemälde Alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz, Kaiser-Frioedrich-Museums-Verein, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, July-August 1925, no. 327.

Gallery Label

The Flemish master Rubens describes the physical and psychological intensity of the moment when God, through the intervention of an angel, prevents the sacrifice of Isaac by his father, Abraham. Abraham, who met God's challenge with anguished resolve, looks with surprise and relief into the eyes of an angel whose oblique entry into the picture plane and fluttering drapery animate the scene. Italian art and the study of classical sculpture played a pivotal role in Rubens' work. Here, the strong color and bold drapery patterns reflect the influence of Venetian painting, the muscular energy of the figures is inspired by Michelangelo, and the sculptural torso of Isaac could be a classical statue. With his customary virtuosity, Rubens combined all of these elements into a dramatic ensemble, the epitome of Baroque dynamism.

Provenance

Willem II, King of the Netherlands (1792–1849), Brussels, after 1820-1849;

To Willem III, King of the Netherlands (1817-1890), Brussels, 1849-1851;

Purchased at his posthumous sale, Tableaux anciens et modernes de diverses écoles, dessins et estampes encadrés, Vries, Roos et Brondgeest, The Hague, September 9, 1851, lot 48, as Le sacrifice d’Abraham, Manière de P. P. Rubbens, by V. Heul for Manasse Unger (1802-1868), Cannstatt, Germany, 1851-1868 [1];

By descent to his nephew, Julius Unger (1837-1909), Cannstatt, Germany, 1868-1909;

Inherited by his widow, Henriette Unger (1851-1932), Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany, 1909-1917;

Purchased at her sale, Gemälde Alter Meister Sammlung J. Unger Cannstatt, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, March 21, 1917, lot 29, as Der Opfer Abrahams, by Josef Garbáty-Rosenthal (1851-1939), Berlin, 1917-no later than 1925;

To his son, Eugène Leopold Garbáty (1880-1966), Berlin and Schloss Alt-Döbern, Niederlausitz, Germany; New York, NY; East Norwalk, CT; and Scarsdale, NY, by 1925-no later than 1947 [2];

By exchange to his brother, Moritz (Maurice, 1892-1965), and his wife, Ella Garbáty (1896-1977), Scarsdale, NY, by 1947-1965 [3];

With Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., New York, stock no. 2425, on joint account with Fritz and Peter Nathan, Zürich, by July 17, 1961-1966;

Purchased from Schaeffer and Nathan by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1966.

NOTES:

[1] This painting was offered for sale by Julius Unger, Gemälde-Sammlung des Herrn Julius Unger, Cannstatt, J. M. Heberle (H. Lempertz’s sons), Cologne, April 7-8, 1884, lot 50, but failed to sell.

[2] Eugène Leopold Garbáty emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1939 after the family’s cigarette business and mining interests were seized by the National Socialist (Nazi) government.

[3] This exchange could have been as early as 1939. See correspondence from Torie Reed, MFA, Boston, to MacKenzie Mallon, February 19, 2013, NAMA curatorial files. According to a letter from Schaeffer Galleries to NAMA dated December 8, 1965, the painting was in the same collection from 1918-1965 (NAMA curatorial files). Ludwig Burchard saw the painting in Maurice Garbáty’s collection in 1951.

Published References

Catalogue des Tableaux Anciens et Moderns de Diverses Écoles, Dessins et Estampes Encadrés formant la seconde partie de la galerie de feu sa Majesté Guillaume II, Roi des Pays-Bas, Prince d'Orange-Nassau, Grand-Duc de Luxembourg (Amsterdam, September 9, 1851), 16, as in the manner of Rubens.

Manasse Unger, Kritische Forschungen im Gebiete der Malerei alter und neuester Kunst (Leipzig, Hermann Schultze, 1865), 218-225, as by Rubens.

Gemälde Sammlung des Herrn Julius Unger in Cannstatt (Cologne: J.M. Heberle, April 7-8, 1884), 25, as by Rubens.

Max Rooses, L’œuvre de P. P. Rubens: Histoire et Desciption de ses Tableaux et des Dessins (Antwerp: Jos. Maes, 1886-1892), 1: no. 107, pp. 127, (repro.); 5: 311-12, as by Rubens.

Albert Pirk, Über den Erfurter Maler und Kunstgelehrten Manasse Unger: Vortrag gehalten im Verein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde von Erfurt, den 6. Dezember 1889 (Erfurt: Bartholomäus, 1890), 22-23, as by Rubens.

Adolf Rosenberg, P. P. Rubens: des Meisters Gemälde (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1905), 47, 466, (repro.), as by Rubens, or at the very least by a member of his workshop.

Willhelm Bode, “Kritik und Chronologie der Gemälde von Peter Paul Rubens,“ review of P. P. Rubens: Des Meisters Gemälde in 551 Abbildungen, by Adolf Rosenberg,“ Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst 16 (1905): 202, as by Rubens.

Edward Dillon, Rubens (London: Methuen, 1909), 213, as perhaps a copy of lost original.

Gemälde Alter Meister: Sammlung J. Unger Cannstatt, und Drei Bilder aus Berliner Privatbesitz (Berlin: Paul Cassirer, March 21, 1917), unpaginated, (repro.).

Rudolph Oldenbourg, “Die Nachwirkung Italiens auf Rubens und die Gründung seiner Werkstatt,” Jahrbuch der Kunstsammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 34 (1918): 189, 189n2, as by Rubens.

Wilhelm von Bode, ed., Peter Paul Rubens: Sammlung der von Rudolf Oldenbourg veröffentlichten oder zur Veröffentlichung vorbereiteten Abhandlungen über den Meister, ed. Wilhelm von Bode (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1922), 92, 92n1,93.

Gemälde Alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz (Berlin, 1925), 52, as by Rubens.

Hans Gerhard Evers, Rubens und sein Werk: Neue Forschungen (Brussels: Neue Forschungen, 1943), 41.

Jan-Albert Goris and Julius S. Held, Rubens in America (New York: Pantheon, 1947), 31, (repro.).

Jan Gerrit van Gelder, “Rubens in Holland in de Zeventiende Eeuw,“ Nederlandsch Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 3, no. 1 (1950-1951): 128, 128n1.

Michael Jaffé, “Cleveland Museum of Art: The Figurative Arts of the West, c. 1400-1800,” Apollo 68, no. 22 (December 1963), 458.

Ralph T. Coe, “Rubens in 1614: The Sacrifice of Abraham,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 4, no. 7 (December 1966): 1-24, (repro.).

Ralph T. Coe, “The Sacrifice of Abraham by Rubens: More Michelangelo Sources,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 4, no. 8 (December 1967): 9-15, (repro.).

Michael Jaffé, “The Flemish and Dutch Schools,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 506, 508, (repro.) [repr. in Denys Sutton, ed., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City (London: Apollo Magazine, 1972), 38, 40, (repro.), as by Rubens.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 121-122, (repro), as by Rubens.

Jan Gerrit van Gelder, "Rubens Marginalia, I,“ The Burlington Magazine 120 (1978): 457.

John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York: Abbeville, 1979), 244.

Julius Samuel Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical Catalogue, vol. 1 (Princeton University Press, 1980), 238n7.

Roger-Adolf D’Hulst and Marc Vandenven, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, part 3, The Old Testament, trans. Paul Stephen Falla (London: Harvey Miller, 1989), no. 12, pp. 58-62,63, (repro.), as by Rubens.

Erik Hinterding and Femy Horsch, “’A small but choice collection’: The Art Gallery of King Willem II of the Netherlands (1792-1849),” special issue, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 19, no. 1/2 (1989): 115.

Michael Jaffé, Catalogo Completo: Rubens, trans. Germano Mulazzani (Milan: Rizzoli, 1989), no. 140, pp. 174-175, (repro.), as by Rubens.

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